Automatic lubricating system



Aug. 28, 1923. 1,466,251 J. H. ROONEY AUTOMATIC LUBRICATING SYSTEM Filed June 9. 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 niiu.

lA/l/E/VTOB, 501111 RR? on eY Aug. 28, 1923 1,466,251

, J: H. ROONEY AUTOMATIC LUBRICATING SYSTEM I Filed June 9, 1921 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR' I j 5012a HRo j Y A TTOR/VE Y will appear.

Patented Aug. 28, 1923.

JOHN H. RODNEY, OF CLIFTON, NEW JERSEY.

AUTOMATIC LUBRICATING SYSTEM.

Application filed June 9,.

To all whom it may 6012 rem:

Be it known that 1, JOHN H. RooNEY, a citizen 'of the United States, residing at Clifton, in the county of Passaic and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Lubricating Systems, or which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to provide means for automatically applying at intervals lubricant to machinery bearings, and particularly bearings so arranged thatit is impracticable to retrieve and return the lubricant to the point oi supply, an example of such bearings being the wheel and other chassis bearings of automobiles. Given a conduit to conduct the lubricant to a bearing to be lubricated having a check valve therein opening toward its delivery end and a source of liquid lubricant supply, my invention contemplates a pump having an inlet from the supply and an outlet to the conduit at the intake side of the valve and means to impart at regular intervals quick delivery strokes and slow return strokes to the moving element of the pump, as its piston if it he a pump of the pist0n-and-cylinder class. By this combination I am not only able to deliver automatically to the bearing to be lubricated equal quantities of the lubricant at regular intervals, but, on account of the moving element of the pump being made to perform its delivery stroke quickly and its return stroke slowly, to attain certain distinct advantages in respect to the structu-re and also the operation of the mechanism, as

In carrying out my invention I provide a lubricant reservoir with spaced upright cylinders arranged therein in two rows on each side of a rotary horizontal cam shaft, each cylinder havinp an inlet from the reservoir and discharging into a conduit leading to one of the bearings, downwardlyspring pressed pistons in the cylinders movable upwardly therein above their said inlets, and lifting levers for the pistons respectively connected thereto and extending over and bearing against the respective cams, the levers being arranged in two sets inwhich the levers of the two sets alternate with each other and are fulcrumed in the reservoir on opposite sides of the shaft and project in opposite directions from their fulcra; the construction and arrangement of the parts are thus such thata large number of pump- 1921. Serial No. 376,164.

tively small reservoir.

A lubricating system suitable for lubricating the bearings of an automobile chassis and embodying the invention shown in the accompanying d 'awingis, wherein Figure l isa plz 'Figure 2 a sectio mg groups may be contamed in a comparaliuc of Fig. :1 Figures 3 and nie sections on liar-sh --f. and 4---. of Fig. and

Figure 5 shows a detail.

In said drawings, a, des' mates reservoir affording the source oi supply for the liquid lubricant. It may have a lared opening l; by which the level of the in ricaut therein may be visually determined.

Secured upright in this rc-ia voir, as by beingscrewed into the bottom thereof, are tubes suitably closed at the top and forming; the cylinders c of pumps, each cylinder having;' more or less near the bottom of the reservoir an intake port cl for adn'iitting lubricant thereto from the reservoir. T hey are spaced from each other and arranged in two rows, one on one side and the other on the other side of the central longitudinal vertical plane of the reservoir. In each cylinder is a piston whose stem .2 protrudes through the top of the cylinder and whose head f has a sealing washer f secured to its lower face. Between the head of the piston and the top of the cylinder and coiled about the piston stem is a. more or less strong spiral spring 9 which normally acts to depress the piston.

By a union h apipe 41, which affords the aforesaid conduit, is secured to the lower end of each cylinder. the pipe of course being made to extend and deliver the lubricant to one of the bearings of the chassis of the vehicle. A valve-seat j is provided in the ill) intake end of this pipe, and seating thercpheric pressure) keeps the lubricant column below it from flowing all at once by gravity to the bearing in cases where thflbQQfLfl-Qgds lower than the valve'; on the downwardstroke the increment of lubricant admitted at port (Z between the piston and valve will be displaced by the piston and, unseating the valve, will enter pipe c".

ach piston stem has at its upper end a litging head c and is received beneath the he d by the forked end of a lifting leverm which is fulcrumed in a suitable bracket attached to the reservoir. These several levers m are arranged in two oppositely projecting sets, one fulcrumed on one side and the other on the other side of the central longitudinal vertical. plane of the reservoir, and they alternate with each other and overlie and have projections m to bear on earns a ,fixed on a rotary horizontal shaft 0 ion:-

naled in the reservoir in said plane.

Each cam is formed on its periphery with a gradu- :11 rise and a sudden fall as shown in Fig. 4; (or rather in the present instance two of these, each two rises and each two falls being diametricall opposite each. other), Consequently, if t e shaft be rotated at a constant speed rate in the direction of the arrow in Fig. 4 the several pistons will be alternately raised and allowed to fall under the pressure of the springs, rising slowly and fall-' d First, though the port cibe small enough so that on the quick down-stroke of the piston the reater part of thelubricant body between t e'piston and valve will be displaced into the pipe 2' and only a relatively "mall part thereof will be displaced back t the reservoir through said port, on

the slow upstroke the space in the, cylinder between said piston and valve will become slowly though completely occupied by lubricant admitted -by said port. Second, since the down-stroke is quick the lubricant can be kept from oozing past the piston head by some such simple expedient as the washer f.

Shaft 0 is driven constantly from some 0111 part of the automobile or other makzv .L

chine, as the shaft p which in the present case is shown extending into the reservoir through a gland g In its bottom wall, through suitable speedmeduoing means, such'as the following: Said shaft carries a worm 77' meshing with a wornmw eel s on a shaft t on which there is a worm u meshing with the worm-wheel c on a shaft 'w on which there is a worm a: meshing witha worm-wheel y on a shaft 2 on which there is a worm 2 meshingwith a worm-wheel 3 on a shaft 4. These several latter shafts are journaled in suitable hearings in the reservoir and brackets 5 therein. Since shaft 0 on account of the form ofthe' cams would lie-locked against backward rotation by the levers m,

the driving train is made to include a clutch permitting it to rotate backwardly independently of shaft 0. On shaft 4 is fixed a clutch member 6 having inclined peripheral faces 6 alternating with abrupt faces 6 and received by a socket clutch member 7 fixed on shaft 0 and Containing rolling elements, as balls, 8. \Vhen member 6 is rotated in one direction the balls will become jammed and hence the movement transmitted to shaft 0 and when it is rotated in the other direction the balls will be carried around free and shaft 0 stand unrotated.

The operation will be apparent in view of: what has beenstated. lVhen the machine is running a d. consequently driving shaft the pistons will. be alternately slowly raised and quickly depressed by the cams 0 and springs g, so that at intervals a lubricant charge is forced toward each hearing. The idea is to preserve a lubricant column in the conduit from valve in to the bearing and at regular intervals, that is, as often as the bearing takes from the bearing end of this column all that it can take. to advance the column again toward the hen. ring by adding ing quicklyj The advantage of this is twofo lubricant reservoir and conduits leading therefrom, of spaced rows of upright cylinders in the reservoirs connected to the conduits, the cylinders! of each row being spaced apart and arranged in staggered relation to the cylinders of the otherrow, pistons in the respective cylinders, sets of levers fulcrumed attheo posits sides of the reservoir and respective y extending in opposite directions between the cylinders of one row and having free ends that operate on the pistons in the cylinders of the other row, a cam shaft common to the sets of levers and extendin transversely thereof between the rows 0 cylinders, said shaft having cam portions operating on the levers to move them in one direction, and means for individually operating the pistons in the opposite direction.

In testimony whereof I ailix my signature.

JOHN H. ROONEY. 

